El-Rufai, that former President Goodluck Jonathan's administration
spent billions on Nigeria's independence anniversary celebrations
between 2011 and 2014, the Office of the Secretary to the Government
of the Federation has confirmed that the governor lied.
Following the decision by President Muhummadu Buhari to approve only
N70 million for the 55th Independence anniversary celebrations on
October 1, 2015, Mr. El-Rufai had sparked a controversy with his claim
that the immediate past administration wasted N64 billion on the same
event in five years.
The governor had given a breakdown of the purported outrageous
expenditures on his Facebook page as follows: N13 billion spent in
2011; N15 billion in 2012; N14 billion in 2013, and N22 billion in
2014.
Associates of the former president, including the immediate past
Minister of National Planning, Abubakar Suleiman, had kicked at Mr.
El-Rufai's claims, dismissing them as "blatant tissues of lies" to
discredit the administration.
Mr. Suleiman stated in a strongly worded rejoinder that the total
expenditure by Mr. Jonathan on independence anniversary celebrations
between 2012 and 2014 never exceeded N333 million.
"The Goodluck Jonathan administration only spent N332.6 million on
three independence anniversaries (2012-2014) and not the billions of
Naira alleged by the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai," an
ex-minister had declared.
"For the record, a breakdown of our spending for this event between
2012 and 2104 goes thus: 2012 (N107.6 million); 2013 (N45 million) and
2014 (N180 million)," he said.
The former minister did not however provide the figures for the 2010
and 2011 expenditures. He said the figures, whenever they were made
available by government, would most likely fall within the bracket as
others, except the 2010 anniversary, which was the golden celebrations
marking the country's 50 year of independence.
He however, defended the increment in the 2013 anniversary spending of
N174.8 million, which he said also covered the budget for the National
Honours Award Investiture incorporated into the year's celebration.
Although the award investiture could not hold in 2013, Mr. Suleiman
said the approved budget was rolled over and utilized to organise the
event the following year.
No official confirmation validated or disputed the claims and
counter-claims by Mr. El-Rufai and the Jonathan administration's
loyalists until now.
In response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by BudgIT
Nigeria on the raging controversy, the Office of the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation confirmed that indeed the Kaduna State
governor lied.
In a response to the October 2, 2015 request by the Lagos-based online
accountability and public finance platform, the Office of the SGF said
governments (past and present) spent a total of N2.24 billion on the
Independence Day Celebration/Centenary Actual Expenditure from
2010-2015.
The director (Finance & Accounts) in the Permanent Secretary's Office,
Mohammed Garba, said N1.7 billion was spent on the country's Golden
Jubilee celebrations in 2010, while no money was released for the
celebration in 2011.
Similarly, about N107.6 million was spent in 2012; N45 million for
2013 and N180 million for 2014.
The figure also included the N70 million spent by the Buhari
administration for the celebration last October.
Mr. Garba, however, explained that although former President Jonathan
had given approval for N223.8 million for the 2013 celebrations, only
N45 million was actually released to the OSGF.
He said about N138.14 million was also released by government for the
Centenary honours awards.
SOURCE:PREMIUM TIMES
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